Bloodshot is facing off against the strange assailants from the previous issue known as Chainsaw. His nanites attempt to hack into their communication system, but in return “Command (the weird looking shut-in)” attempts to hack him as well. The fight is vicious and explosive. Meanwhile Oreck is concerned that Bloodshot may be headed to the lower levels and does not want this to happen because “the Children” are down there. Kara and Melissa (Pulse) are trying to make their escape from their respective cells, but they find their confines to be even more challenging than originally thought. The one door does open though and out comes Gamma (looking pretty old) much to the horror of Melissa. Kara makes out better though as the Nanites come to her aid. The Chainsaw member known as Gunner tracks down Bloodshot in the morgue. However, Bloodshot utilizes both his abilities and his smarts to get the better of him. Immediately afterwards he is forced to fight Recon who manages to lay a brutal beating on Bloodshot. He has the upper-hand until Bloodshot takes advantage of his disadvantage in a surprising way. Bloodshot then takes massive damage from Point and Cleaner who have a lot of firepower. Meanwhile Kara is lead to Command by the Nanites much to his surprise. They fight and she manages to create enough of a distraction to help Bloodshot. Kuretich then provides Bloodshot with directions that lead him to “the Vault,” but instead he finds the children. One of them breaks out much to the regret (and fear) of Point and Cleaner.

The Breakdown

The one thing that I immediately noticed was how much better Bloodshot looked in this issue. He looked more like a force to be reckoned with. In previous issues, sometimes he looked old and skinny. Also, he utilized some great ideas to help him out during the battle with Chainsaw. They were just as formidable as he is and he had to make some good strategic decisions in order to stop them. His dispatching of Recon was pretty sick and awesome at the same time. I want to see the confrontation between Gamma and Melissa next issue. I am also really curious as to why Bloodshot is not allowed anywhere near “the children” who did have some familiar features on the cover from another series. Swier…Duane does a good job of constantly throwing more stories and ideas at the reader without it becoming overwhelming or without any of them getting lost in the fray. Kara proved herself to be a good ally in this issue. She had the oddest line though when fighting Command after he called her the “b” word and it also made me laugh. The Nanites pretty specific time-frame for hacking into Command was actually kind of funny. Bloodshot has almost seemed like an immortal up to this point, but finally there’s a true sense of life-threatening danger with him. The sense of fear on the part of Point and Cleaner really helped to set the mood. Bloodshot finally makes it down to the lower levels and we have only scratched the surface. A lot happens in this issue and the cliffhanger has me anticipating the next issue more than usual. How does Project Rising Spirit tie into the organization mentioned at the end? I can’t wait to find out. I enjoy this book, but I usually anticipate the other Valiant titles more. This book is really hitting its stride and it is getting to be really intense.

BUT…

As much as I like the Nanites, I do hope that their assistance is minimized in the future. I don’t want them to become a deus ex machina. Other than that concern this is probably the best issue of this title to date.

Buy It, Borrow It, Shelf Read It, or Ignore It?

Buy It. This series has been getting stronger as it has progressed. This series is pretty accessible to new readers. I was glad that Bloodshot couldn’t simply shoot his way down to his goal and I am now wondering what Kuretich’s goal is. I didn’t really trust him from the get-go and the conclusion of this issue kind of reinforced that for me. Valiant just continues to bring it each and every month as they don’t have one bad (or weak) title in their line-up.

About The Author

joesmith

I have been both an avid and casual comic reader over the years (depending on the quality of books). I have been reading Comics Nexus even prior to it becoming Comics Nexus and am glad to be a columnist. In addition, feel free to leave comments whether you agree or disagree because it always leads to discussions.